University of Virginia Library

HENDERSON.

At an early day the family of Henderson owned land near
Milton, both on the north and south sides of the Rivanna.
A stream which empties into the river below Milton, and
which rises not far from Colle, was for many years known as
Henderson's Branch. John Henderson bought the land on

which Milton stands from Dr. Arthur Hopkins, who entered
it in 1732. He died in 1786. It is conjectured his wife was
a Bennett, as that was a given name in the family from generation
to generation. His children were John, Bennett,
William, Elizabeth, the wife of David Crawford, Susan, the
wife of John Clark, Mary and Hannah, both married to Bullocks,
and Frances, the first wife of John Thomas, of Amherst.

John Jr., was the owner, by gift from his father and father-in-law,
of a large quantity of land lying below Milton, and
in the Biscuit Run Valley. He was manifestly a man of influence
on his own account. He was a magistrate, and filled
the office of Sheriff, though in consequence of the loss of the
early records the time is not known. He died in 1790, only
four years after the death of his father. His wife was Frances,
daughter of John Moore, and his children Bennett, Matthew,
William, Mary, the wife of Hopkins Lewis, Frances, the
wife of John Hines, Sarah, the wife of Micajah Clark, and
Elizabeth, the wife of Peter Martin. Bennett emigrated to Jessamine
County, Kentucky, about 1800, and Matthew followed
him a few years later. William, who married Rebecca,
daughter of John Hudson, conveyed six hundred acres on Biscuit
Run to Walter Coles in 1806, when he presumably joined
his kindred in the West. John Hines lived at the Pillars of
Hercules, now known as Millington, sold the place in 1807 to
Thomas Ellis, and removed to Kentucky, where after his decease
his widow became the wife of John Nicoll, of Allen
County. Hopkins Lewis lived on a farm on Biscuit Run
given his wife by her father, but his management of it was so
intolerable, that in 1801 the court took it from his control,
and in 1827 his seven children, scattered over Kentucky and
Tennessee, appointed attorneys to dispose of it.

Bennett, the second son of John Sr., was a man of much
consideration. He was a magistrate of the county. It was on
his land Milton was built. He resided there, and in the
exercise of a liberal, enterprising spirit erected a large flouring
mill, and a tobacco warehouse, that during the next
thirty years preserved the name of Henderson in the community.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Charles
Lewis Jr., of Buck Island, and had twelve children, John,
who married Ann B. Hudson, sister of his cousin William's
wife, William, Sarah, the wife of John R. Kerr, James,
Charles, Isham, Bennett, Hillsborough, Eliza, the wife of
John H. Bullock, Frances, the wife of Thomas Hornsby,
Lucy, the wife of John Wood, and Nancy Crawford, the wife
of Matthew Nelson. Bennett Henderson died comparatively
young in 1793, and within the next fifteen years his widow
and all her children had removed to Kentucky. Their land
around Milton, which was sold to Craven Peyton, came into
Mr. Jefferson's hands in 1811; and in the deed to Mr. Jefferson,
evidently written by his own hand in the precise language
which marks all his writings, there is a full account
of Bennett Henderson's family.

James P. Henderson was a grandson of Justice John Blair,
of the United States Supreme Court, and one of the heirs of
Blair Park. By purchasing the interest of John Blair Peachy,
the other heir, in 1831, he became the sole owner. He married
Margaret C., daughter of Richard Pollard, and granddaughter
of Robert Rives, and had one child, Pauline, who
became the wife of David M. Clarkson, of New York. He put
an end to his own life at Cocke's Tavern in 1835.